Poems, prose, essays, rants

For a conscientious consumer seeking a powerful smart-phone, there seem to be two options: Fairphone and and Samsung’s Galaxy S4. I will first assess the ethicality and sustainability of these devices then compare their technical specifications.

Sustainability and Ethics

Last year, a number of articles were written comparing these two phones for sustainable and ethics, as the Galaxy was awarded TCO certification and Fairphone’s raison d’etre is ethicality. While Samsung need no introduction, Fairphone is a crowd-funded initiative to produce a recyclable smartphone manufactured in fair and safe condition, from ethically sourced (and ultimately completely recycled) materials.

One such article, on Triple Pundit went into some depth, comparing the two phones based on three major categories: Conflict minerals and working conditions, hazardous materials and disposal and e-waste.

Conflict minerals are precious metal ores such as gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum, originally purchased from violent and oppressive armed groups in places such as the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo. They are exported, smelted and used in many consumer electronics products. The war in the DRC as killed over 5 million people since 1998 and seen whole communities fractured by systematic rape and violence. For a brief history of this conflict and a first-hand account of the corruption and criminality, see this article by journalist Jeffrey Gettleman. Gettleman also tells of improvements in recent years, due to international pressure, which led the Congolese government to seize and regulate a number of mines. These changes may account for the certified conflict-free tin and tantalum used by Fairphone, who are still attempting to secure a conflict free supply of gold and tungsten; this may prove especially difficult as Congolese gold mines are still predominately controlled by armed groups.

The TCO offers no guarantee that certified products are free of conflict minerals. Additionally, The Triple Pundit review relies on TCO guidelines to assess the effort taken by Samsung to ensure the ethicality of their supply chains. This is problematic because there has since been some controversy regardingTCO’s certification. However, the TCO’s analysis found that the deficiencies in provision for workplace illness and accidents cited by critics, were based on evidence gathered before the certificate came into effect. Further, the analysis claims that the accusation of workers’ lack of rights to free association and collective bargaining (i.e unionisation) were unfounded. While the certification stills stands, it brings to light the fact that Samsung have historically failed, and in their supply chains and manufacturing processes for other products, may still fail to adhere to the TCO’s rules. Fairphone claims to promote the International Labor Organization’s requirements for working conditions and had its factory and China reviewed by a third party social assessment organisation. Assuming that both Smartphone’s manufacturers ensure adequate working conditions, Fairphone’s main advantage is the fact that they have never profited form doing otherwise.

In terms of hazardous materials, while Fairphone follows guidelines set out in European law, the TCO’s policies are in some areas more stringent, completely banning the use of mercury and phthalates. Both Samsung and Fairphone implement take-back programs to facilitate the proper disposal and recycling of their products. However, Fairphone goes further in both partnering with Closing the Loop who buy up mobile phone scrap from developing companies and ensure that is properly processed and setting aside 3 euros per unit sold for e-waste management projects in countries where these facilities don’t exist.

Fairphone has a clean rap sheet regarding past and contemporary unethical supply chains and manufacturing conditions. While Samsung markets the S4 as a ‘life companion’ and places much of their branding is aspirational and based on an idealised Western lifestyle, Fairphone’s entire presentation relates to their ethical goals. Samsung’s greater progress in terms of hazardous chemicals (in this case) may sway those of you who prioritise workers’ exposure to such chemicals over further curtailing the violence and exploitation that have ravaged the DRC.

Specs

Operating system

Both phones ship with Android 4.2.2 (Jelly bean) installed, though the look and feel of these operating system will be very different as both companies will install additional software. Fairphone are working with Kwamecorp to develop a clear an uncluttered user interface. Here is a video of someone unboxing one of previous (2013) batch of Fairphones. The fact that the Fairophone user interface software will be open source scores a lot of points with me. While it comes with it’s own unique swiping functionality and menus, which may or may not be to your taste, you may appreciate the relative lack of pre-installed bloatwear, that I had to root my existing Samsung Galaxy S2 to remove, and complete absence of Google software to begin with.

All of this aside, with a little research, a few software downloads and some effort, both phones can be rooted and their software heavily customized, though Samsung don’t encourage this while Fairphone do.

Processor

All Faiphones come with a 1.2ghz quad core CPU. The various versions of the Galaxy S4 come with a range of quad core CPUs clocked at between 1.2 and 2.3Ghz. A more expensive S4 will get you more processing power. However, four cores clocked to 1.2Ghz should handle playing music and videos, web browsing, social networking and casual gaming, even simultaneously, without a stutter. The lower clock speed will likely also mean lower power consumption.

Memory and Storage

The Galaxy S4 comes with 2GB of RAM (random access memory) and between 16 and 64GB of internal storage augmentable using the microSDXC card slot that can take up to 64GB. While the Fairphone only comes with 1GB of RAM 16GB internal storage, some of which will be used for the operating system, it also has a microSFXC card slot, meaning that those seeking to store a greater volume of data can do so.

Display and GPU

With a 1920×1080 Super AMOLED display measuring 5 inches across, the S4 has a considerable advantage over the Faiphone’s 4.3 inch 960x540px TFT screen, both in terms of pixel density and image vibrancy.

Mobile device GPUs aren’t aren’t as heavily documented and compared as laptop and desktop graphics cards. However, I can tell you that the Fairphone comes with a PowerVR SGX544 clocked at 158 MHz. The S4 GT-i9500 features the same GPU, clocked at 533 MHz. Why the massive difference in clock speed? The S4 GPU has to process four times as many pixels. Later versions of the S4 come with the Adreno 430, which clocks at 450/578Mhz. Because of the smaller screen resolution, the Faiphone performed surprisingly well at outputting a visually complex 3D game.

Camera

Based on image resolution alone, the S4’s 13 megapixels trumps the Fairphone’s 8. However, it’s worth noting that while a higher resolution will lead to larger and possibly more detailed image files, the optics of a small mobile phone lens may not produce images worthy of such a high resolution. Not to mention the fact that the data from the CMOS sensor is interpolated to produce more pixel values than are technically sensed.

As far as video recording goes goes, the Fairphone can encode 1080p@30fps video using H.263 and 720p@30fps using the higher quality H.264 codec. Again, the S4 wins with 1080p @ 30fps encoded using H.264. It also has support for the the new HEVC or H.265 codec, but I don’t know if this extends to recording.

As I cannot find an objective comparison of the image quality, I’ll say that the S4 has a superior camera due to the higher resolution sensor.

Networks

Both phones can connect to 2G and 3G networks. In some cases, the S4 cna also connect to 4G (LTE). Both support wireless 802.11 while the S4 has a greater range of features. Conveniently, the Fairphone has two SI card slots, the first 2G and the second 3G.

Conclusion

The Faiphone boasts dual SIM capabilities, which may cut the costs buying an maintaining a second phone if for some reason one needed to have two numbers. In my view, at least, the minimalistic open-source software that comes with the Fairphone is also superior. Out of the box, my old Galaxy SII was filled with bloatwear that would run in the background without my consent; it was so obtrusive that it felt like it was hard-coded, requiring a warranty-voiding rooting process to remove it. At least Faiphone seem to understand that software is one area where a great deal of freedom is possible.

The build-quality of the S4 has been criticised. People have said it looks and feels cheap. The front of the Fairphone is almost all glass and most of the back is metal. Personally, I prefer design of the Fairphone over the generously curved corners and lightly textured plastic of the S4.

The Fairphone is surpassed in all other major technical areas. As a general purpose camera, gaming and media playing/streaming device the S4 is far more feature rich.

Economic Convenience

Due to Fairphne’s lack of reliance on venture capital, one can only purchase by pre-ordering for the next production batch at approximately £254.91 . This can mean long waits and a lack of convenience and choice.

With the S4 there are is a plethora of contracts (Cheapest: £357.12 for 34 months) and pay as you go deals to choose from, as well as SIM free deals from £309.99.

The fairphone should work out cheaper, though as the S4 is superseded by the S5, the gap could close.

Last Word

Buying a Fairphone is more of a political act. The pragmatist in me may choose the powerful, convenient and reasonably ethical S4 but the idealist would like to support a start-up company that aims to raise awareness about consumer electronic manufacturing processes and supply chains, taking small steps toward changing them for the better.

After passing through the plate glass doors, I was stepped onto glossy white tiles interspersed with a grid of isolated black ones. Around me were polished steel and red neon tubing. On flat-screen behind the counter, a smiling stock photo of a call-centre worker was captioned with ‘Real Answers from Real People! [my emphases]’ As I sat down to wait to open an account, I noticed the anodyne piped pop music playing in the background.

Nothing like the demure and bland English high-street banks I’m used to, this building bellowed ‘I’m American!’, in loud red, white and blue graphics. I gazed around in amused fascination, wondering how this aesthetic could belong to a bank that hadn’t yet fallen to corporate sleaze – one that wasn’t yet too big to fail.

The sceptic in me suspects that the bank’s favourable ratings with Ethical Consumer and Move Your Money are simply because they have a clean rap sheet. They haven’t had time to invest in the arms trade, evade taxes and mistreat their customers, let alone be bailed out by the state and continue to do so.

I put in my earphones to block out the Muzak. ‘All my senses rebel!’ Brendan Parry’s voice solemnly proclaims. I’ve walled myself off to the extend that the man just who sat down next to me is seen first. I shrug.

A retouched photograph of what the site of the bank 100 years ago was printed onto a large backlit canvas. The colours are vivid and artificial, in a sense aiming to be more real than those of the original scene.

All of the branding makes more sense when you view it as a manifestation of the aesthetic sensibilities of a man who cut his teeth developing properties for McDonald’s. He already has the successful American Commerce bank behind him and he hasn’t altered his fast-food retail strategy of long hours and smiling mascots a great deal for the UK.

When the US diplomatic cables were published in 2010, Julina Assange emerged as something of a figurehead and was represented positivity in the left-wing press. Naively, I saw him as something of a hero, a man whose fame was derived from his intellect, technical ability and principles.

After reading Andrew O’Hagen’s account of the months he spent attempting to ghost-write an autobiography for Assange, which exceed 25,000 words, I cannot deny that his personality is flawed. He displays a lack of empathy, manners and a sense of responsibility. He treats those he collaborates with with a general disregard and rails against them furiously when they turn against him. He favours large scale simultaneous dumping of hundred of thousands of documents, each one with its own complex set of circumstances. According to O’Hagen, he was partly motivated by the shock and awe of such an explosive leak of information, the spectacle of it. He is reported to have voiced conflicting opinions on the importance of redacting people’s names from these documents in the interest of their safety; his attitude seems ambivalent. It was up to The Guardian, The New York Time, Le Monde and Der Spiegel to ethically edit the information. The former two organization, Assange has come to view as enemies.

This is not the first time his personality and private life have been dissected, especially after his relationship with the organisation who published the cables broke down. There have been many allegation in the press and I’ve heard different opinions on his character voiced since. One friend compared him to Hitler, in his single-minded and uncaring pursuit of his goals. Others have focussed on the arguably positive aspects: The blows struck to the authority of powerful institutions as their private data was leaked. However, It’s worth noting that Assange is not necessarily an essential actor in these events. One wonders whether they would have occurred without him…

Although Assange rather arbitrarily dubs himself the 3rd best hacker in the world (and Edward Snowden as the 9th) I question whether someone with more self-doubt and empathy would have served just as well as a figurehead and founder of Wikileaks. There are many people with an extensive knowledge of networks, cryptology and cryptanalysis, some of whom might have possessed the integrity to apply the same principals of transparency to their own organization as those whose secure information they were publishing. They may not have vehemently insisted that recordings and manuscript were kept private. They may not have exhibited such a profound paranoia about spying and betrayal.

This is pure speculation, of course. Perhaps the grandness of Assange’s vision and his skill set are a very rare combination indeed, with some rather unfortunate side effects. Perhaps he is the only one whose idealism egoism and telecommunications/computing nous would have spawned Wikileaks, or similar.

Regrettably, I suppose this post only serves to add to the enormous amount of attention this man has garnered. Most of the credit goes to the whistle-blowers themselves and the people who sifted through all of the leaked information, attempting to make it meaningful to the general public.

It is almost unthinkable that multinational software corporations like Adobe and Autodesk are not aware of all the keygens, cracks and other means of illegally licensing and using their software available online. They probably have the resources and technically skilled staff needed to effectively combat software piracy, but what would they gain from this investment?

Assuming they were successful (the pirates are always on step ahead): You might think that they would gain tighter control of their various software markets. What would hobbyists and early career artists/technicians do if software used by sizeable animation, visual effects, architecture and engineering firms was completely unavailable to them?

They might look into free and open source alternatives like GIMP (raster graphics), Inkscape (Vector graphics) and Blender (3D modelling and animation.) In my experience, Blender seldom, if ever crashes; the same can’t be said for Maya.

Neither of these possible consequences help the big corporations. Without software piracy, there would be a smaller pool of unemployed (or employed in different industries) workers skilled in their software.

If you really want a career as a CAD technician, photo retoucher, graphic designer or 3d artist, the chances are, you’ll do better if you continue to pirate industry standard software sold by giant corporations. As a university student, you could even get Autodesk software free on an educational licence.

However, if you’re a hobbyist or someone looking to set up a firm who do things a little differently, consider this:

You could learn your craft in a way that doesn’t strengthen the monopoly of companies who profit from the software they’ve bought up from multiple developers.

You could do so without the constant fear of litigation.

You could eventually contribute to the open source projects you’ve benefited from.

You won’t feel like a powerless wage labourer, so grateful for a chance to work for someone who can afford the means of production, or to be that someone.

A teenage me might have though it clever and naughty to use pirate software, but in my twenties, I’m starting to see the bigger picture.

Intro

When I recently posted some pieces of text generated by what would I say, I felt an urge to order them in a loosely narrative way. I’m making this the explicit aim of this post; I’m placing the original chunks of generated text back-to-back, without editing anything. These things I have written on facebook over the past five or so years, have been wrenched out of their contexts and shuffled, only for me to attempt to reorder them.

Text

In 2005 in London. Frost, fog, forest, fields, autumnal leaves. I’m quite sure I returned from my darling friend Alex. It might be a pretty small venue so we walked down Paying full price as I couldn’t stay. Couldn’t loath my darling friend in Etonian drawl Yes, that’s what I’ve been programming this To be individually solid as rock. ‘it is our summer? Back pain and genealogy…

just woke up a castle whilst pissed given to drift into a paraphilia where sexual arousal is good Time to see you Slept through you, just like your breath As for the innocence of youth; how I can’t get you oh, of makeup, and from childhood, through a neverending tunnel of you! .I’m waitin’ for flesh And real blood I’ll watch you Likely to draw such sublimity, hence Sonorous erection. The sad thing was innocence, turned on my life, but take time I know that What she said, was sad, but after that ‘Her skirt ascends for nothing’

This is very embarrassing way to see it, besides developing a new face. I’d like a desire to cleanse me Wish I’d feel humiliated if I enjoy it though.

I look for work with detachable limbs It’s from an outspoken advocate of eugenics. This is the yobbo occidentalis, generally accepted view nowadays. Oh, it depends on the receiving end, right? His death for a vindaloo But I can type quickly and it sustains him. Typing with my better studied by trained natural scientists, and finish my degree. We’re going to distract the peasants from the middle east. Fret not for me, I’m afraid. 24 hours or another hacker community seems clear to pin the foul taste of horse shit. Darling, don’t look so retardedly happy whateveritwas, I just purchased a kind of oppression. All the shower Pushing my wandering fancy and conspicuous consumption isn’t vulgar enough.

Productivity has dropped since returning to raise you Whenever I decide it would not I look like a dog round your behest. Couriers will have to contract HIV I’m sometimes shocked by human stupidity. I’m quite conventional really vivid, I had help from time to involve performance and scholarly halls of wine. Hopefully my dissertation won’t end up to be displaying the absurd thing was offered opportunities for procrastination. Reminds me You can run the course

It’s from an unsigned Nottingham band to Justin Bieber. They’ll take 25 second to do hear a week?

Terrorism is playing with a gaping hole in my Eyes My better judgement said they had none If that were the case, as friction relies on our experience of oppression… That is disturbing, and demands the blackest thoughts

just woke up fully; I’m aiming to cut yes’s throat and never its mum in order to take that Brisk, invigorating walk up and it is the application of makeup, and alliteration Alas, my craft’s not Walking in a wallsocket’ Less importantly, I think there is always steeped in social behaviour and that is unreservedly thankful for an invasion of memories. This Hash,masculine,saliva a painting half hours of a drag outfit. Here are hate, jealousy, hurry, and indifference frothed into them, and masculinity now. Roll on one of the dominant order. I view these chaps Staring out of future taxpayers like so many football fans in the way we are, with dreadful dancing on this Soon you will drown in the foul taste of the phalanx of phalocentricity. It might be outdated or ideologically biased. a custom whereby a man Come back to moo milk. Give me something better than patriarchy or don’t get me

Your point is cogent, compelling even, but the deeds of a few months. and the whole affair,the apparent attempt almost to pin the tragedy on my brazen, bawdy, tawdry bed Nothing more ‘Don’t you make a theory of my mental hygiene I’m all out

Got my life, but take it, it’s quite old.

Nah, I’m breaking to pieces, i’ll toss a lower melting point I dwell in the English language.

I came across this web app called What Would I Say. It parses what you’ve posted to facebook and generates random text based on this.

Rather than annoying all my facebook friends by posting loads of generated sentences, I’ll copy a few noteworthy ones here. It’s unlikely you’ll find the rearranged song lyrics, autobiographical minutiae, literary quotes, computer geekery and general weirdness as interesting as I do, nevertheless:

Funny:

well I was only due to be tied up in the most popular newspaper for you?

This is very serious people I had help from a bee’s behind!

Minute, undetectable teapot, hear my plea!

I’ve been targeted by a car enthusiast.

‘In a look of pride after devouring a bull elephant.

Cycling offroad without my epileptic vomiting donkey.

I wouldn’t enter into owl mode again.

may be developing a transsexual partner.

I wouldn’t legally be able to get an autotuned eunuch.

Thanks for all over my hoe’s from LA,Hawaii and Japan.

I’d prefer western ones, like a peado’

Each household appliance is like a boy I request, in Guatamala.’

It’s not the savoury scent of salt swol’n cunt. Swol’n indeed

I wouldn’t legally be allowed to socialize, becasue I have though the Yahoo toolbar, a child weeps.

‘I can find myself masticating a large crow, and rather than other teachers from continental philosophy is illegal, as it is…

We’re supposed to have a tendency to contract HIV I’m afraid.

It is called Terminal std.

Hmm, maybe the fun’s diminished now

You may also have been awful quality.

I wouldn’t legally permitted to resent this…

is a big hunk of fruitbread full of clichés.

I’lll put it in the Guardian XD.

If only for the purposes of sleep, followed by cake.

That was £0.50 per book per book, per hour.

Profound:

It is infinite, then it just phantom pain.

Dasein said ‘I am exposed. The former sounds like a year fairly hurried.

Life is a behaviour rather than this, I’ll toss a simple radio transmitter

Also, since I was told to see humanity repeat the same atrocities again and again.

might actually vomit if it happened there, I swive, I think.

Would it kill him a photograph of some feminist writing

People from my gender are necessary because they are your plans?

Just noticed how about your existence is very serious people I sometimes find frustrating.

I wouldn’t be complete without you.

Using old Testament eyeforandeye. Or, if I think I always lie.

I wouldn’t mind some degree of erudition, otherwise be blinded by the basins, you

Nope Live in a relationship with unpopular ideas. ‘

Verbose/Rambling:

No large crow, and rather sensitive about my old fashioned, but I’m of water filter was full of owls!

I wouldn’t legally be developing a vampiric complexion, is called starvation.’ Harsh but spoton Dawkins.

at the while, valuable and dangerous, I had to do something to power ‘Some ideas simply too old fashioned, but I’m moving through a Fulltime undergraduate BA in Nazi regaila!

Having trouble containing the violence. The purposes of human beings, so identity politics and ruddy a charity fundraiser of my wandering fancy and literature in equal measures = false; Improve clothingMesh; if anyone starts on a video related injury, I’m filing a sign of negligible intelligence

Too much for teen boys to ignore the violence. The difference between a joist and a fresh cadaver?

fine art* Alas, the shafts of his vocabulary consisted of electronic versions of human beings, so this

Revolting!…The verb.’ BJ ‘Oh.. dear… Well I was thinking of phalocentricity.

Middle aged chap who never really went well, though the sun in pale maudlin winter…

Just noticed my male insecurities ‘Your unique contribution to shoot footage when I have also shag stuff.

It is contrary to find I can repay the weekend’s serotonin debt in the most of my wit’s blade, though blunt it works. Worst grades I’ve had gotten from a bee’s behind!

Dancing to metal is fucking intense, nearly wrenched my hoe’s from the art scene in decline when I applied for a JSON handling library I’m afraid so, when his company entered the majority of jumpers, walk up with a lot of interest in suffering in my tongue, when you

Ignoring the current rates of dull throbbing pain in Loughborough yet?

Terrorism is fine, although I do hear a bit defensive. One way to sadder shores Your sense another six inches I request, in view these models as such, I suppose.

Took me of my actions carry a torpor, located, as pure relationship. Then we can actually feel my brain has been found in any of his lifestyle a woman, one becomes the weight my brazen, bawdy, tawdry bed Nothing more

Surprisingly, I quite popular at the body’s interminable shifting and reconstruction in the savoury scent of a blank grey soul glows red for a big fan of idealism. I get that

Any cretinous Americans celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death should have to change their minds, under present circumstances, Labour actually buy this

I wouldn’t enter there You’ve nothing I had a test when I have been awful daylight, although it will be blood on the following categories White, male bodies.’ Hopefully my dissertation on seagull behaviour such a considerable investment is higher and boring weekend after so much for teen boys will be as forests fell’d Before the class or sexuality. I agree with nothing to implement’. Anyway, only this

Look for a cogent point, as the male, middle aged chap who walks around the corner was thinking about how I miss any of us actually vomit black letters on this

Appears to have left half a pigeon in a point, but I’m thinking of being vegan for pricks and on one until this

The time and work every one example of copyright violation, child porn, or the lingual order of compulsory heterosexuality later if I do I miss any serious trouble believing that

This is very lanky, it’s a platonic love, is very articulate gentleman, got a sacrin syrup of insincerity drips from the 19th century onwards, which concerns itself with more

your name like ice, into my private key card may be a bit my head which I think they’ve just got a behaviour of Scotch now…

There was painfully close to woo the female with a common source of headaches gametessperm and 15 minutes of their aid all the kind of me

Has been deflowered and think she’s brave but callous as it will field an electricblue flinch or something like 1.7 on Demonoid, if I sometimes find myself violently, as the power asymmetry present it; dry, static and have to imply that

Why are women the World, dump her barren womb mirror. And his multiple spouse wounds

Remember when Teachers, Civil disobedience against an authoritarian regime in The fridge, crawling with his partner’s like a cat person, so no.

‘So that’s the theory at LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY Your tuition fee coming on It’s numbing a human error into the News of the crowd and the notion of reality.

Yeah, I swive, I strive for pricks and on my old topic. I was nice to or trust. Luckily my fire In restless dreams I’ll toss a blur. As you

Hungover, sleepdeprived and 2011/12 student Finance declaration forms neural pathways so strong they can withstand even

incommodumludusophilia A great reputation for male attention in a crowded public space, repeatedly hearing myself violently, as friction relies on both look like manner.

I wouldn’t have rationality and I hardly the way outside what looked like a pulled muscle in my head feels as my books list is.

and the case scenario, I wonder what they just look like be in bad press’ — I’ve spent six weeks left to be interested to see deeper, see abstractly and above another, and thin, distorted and thin, distorted and thin, distorted and thin

My head feels great hurry, the towers of gender, race, class or other small six legged insects, and finish this

Teenagers swarmed in, shouting Bwap, bwap.’ Did they all the walls are hidden behind bars in the arse!

A’ LEAST I think I have my solemn assurances, bitches will put masculinities forward led to a similar joke.

so…sickened, I’m moving through the skin, the phosphorescent goose that

and the the the funniest fictional personae in front of one to avoid eye contact, you

Nothing like a spade. In public view abstract painting can give us the body’s states to be tied up in the rules Grab the book closest to deal with a University planted on the face when I suppose…

Who’s going to read my blog? What sort of blogs will I be exposed to? Our choice of blogging platform has some bearing on these questions.

(One caveat: I wrote this in October 2013; if you’re reading it in 2015 or later, most of this information will be useless.)

Rather than looking primarily at the quality of available blogging services and whether their features would suit my needs like a lot of reviewers, I’m focusing on the people that make up blogging communities. In my example, I’ll be assessing Alexa’s top three ranked free blogging services: WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr as candidates for a secondary blog. I’m doing this because like many artists, I already have a website where I can post all kinds of content. My site runs on the award-winning open source content management system Joomla; It is stable, customizable and functions well as blog. What it lacks, is ready access to millions of potentially similar blogs and the ability to comment on them using a single account that leads to my blog and website.

Alexa.com offers popularity rankings, user demographics and other stats that can help us gain a broad overview of a website’s visitors and how they behave. With a global rank of 13, Blogger is the most popular blogging service in the world. However, the majority of it’s traffic comes from America. WordPress is ranked 15th globally and while my native UK makes up 3.8% of visitors, it is still the 15th most popular site on this relatively small landmass. Tumblr is the least popular, with a global rank of 26, but similarly, because a mere 4.1% of its visitors are based in the UK it is the 18th most popular site here. Blogger is the most extreme example, being the most popular overall, but ranked 69th in the UK. The fact that blogger is the least popular in the UK could have some consequences: I’d find it less convenient read and interact with blogs of people I meet face-to-face in the UK and I’d be far less likely to network with people with links to UK universities, galleries and other institutions.

Another part of Alexa’s traffic analysis that may be useful is their audience engagement stats. WordPress.com has the highest Bounce Rate, meaning that a high percentage of visitors don’t continue browsing after viewing one page, and lowest Pageviews per Visitor and Daily Time Spent on Site – thought the site is currently improving, with the first statistic falling and the second two rising. While Tumblr has the best of these stats, they are moving in the opposite direction to WordPress’, meaning that the site may be deteriorating. Blogger’s Bounce Rate is the lowest, and is falling; Its Daily Time on Site is mediocre but rising. As I have little reason to think that current trends will continue, I think Tumblr performs best in this area.

While traffic analysis stats tell us a bit about who visits a site and how they do it, it’s possible to get some idea of the content of a website using search engines. Below is a table of the estimated numbers of results in each site for different search terms using Bing. I chose MS Bing because it’s unaffiliated – unlike Google, Microsoft doesn’t have the incentive or ability to immediately index all new Blogger blogs.

blogspot.com

wordpress.com

tumblr.com

art

17,400,000

8,740,000

17,400,000

“digital art”

361,000

132,000

383,000

fiction

2,910,000

2,460,000

1,120,000

philosophy

2,150,000

1,880,000

357,000

poetry

2,860,000

2,680,000

11,600,000

prose

711,000

445,000

5,710,000

“interactive prose”

9,290

2,860

30

“interactive poetry”

2,660

2,080

6

“digital poetry”

2,740

2,430

69

“digital fiction”

1,400

2,400

71

“interactive fiction”

16,200

12,600

4,070

“Games design”

79,000

7,420

6,330

“indie games design”

5,100

2,970

4,010

unity3d

33,800

12,500

7,260

“blender 3d”

41,900

12,100

7,030

GIMP

559,000

247,000

78,400

c#

1,000,000

534,000

8,250

TOTAL:

28,143,090

17,175,360

36,685,526

I chose the particular words based on my personal interests. I’m confident most of you could compile a similar list. Tumblr’s much higher total owes to the millions of results for the rather generic terms prose, poetry and art. For more specific phrases, and software-related terms, Tumblr doesn’t deliver. Blogspot certainly does better in this area, as well as yielding more results for the general terms. WordPress falls somewhere in the middle with no great flaws or strengths.

In my case, each of our three blogging services performs best in one category: WordPress in most popular in my native UK, Tumblr tends to have more engaged visitors and blogspot seems to have more content that is relevant to most of my interests. There are several other factors here. WordPress does better in terms of quality and features, as this ranking of blogging services indicates. I have past experience of both WordPress and Blogger, albeit four years ago, and I did enjoy the former more. I’m also fond of WordPress because it’s a quality open source project, which represents countless hours of work by highly skilled volunteers. If we were going on features alone, WordPress would be a winner, but I already use its more complex and powerful competitor Joomla. Blogger gets a decent review on TopTenREVIEWS, while Tumblr doesn’t appear in the ranking. This review from PC Magazine is hardly overflowing with praise. The very idea of emphasising images at the expense of text goes against many of my inclinations. Especially as, in practice, pornographic images end up circulating widely (Tumblr had the highest number of Bing results for the term “porn”.) Blogger, on the other hand, while not as high quality as WordPress, is geared toward more conventionally verbose blogs and is highly customisable – allowing you to edit the HTML directly.

I am torn between the quality of WordPress, and the fact it has a large share of the UK market and the greater relevance of Blogger. Regardless of how enjoyable wordpress might beto use, it’s audience engagement stats are underwhelming – it’s far more important that people enjoy reading enough to carry on doing so. Perhaps I can could use Twitter and Facebook as a link to UK based networks and Blogger to find a community of like-minded artists and writers. It is also worth remembering that google has a 67% share of the search engine market and will be guaranteed to index all of my content if I use Blogger. At this stage, I think it’s worth putting that theory to the test by running the test I ran earlier with Google search:

blogspot.com

wordpress.com

tumblr.com

art

226,000,000

55,200,000

87,100,000

“digital art”

742,000

369,000

364,000

fiction

38,500,000

18,500,000

5,130,000

philosophy

14,600,000

7,300,000

731,000

poetry

28,800,000

2,260,000

2,590,000

prose

4,090,000

445,000

308,000

“interactive prose”

43

93

2

“interactive poetry”

4,270

5,240

162

“digital poetry”

3,980

14,100

1,200

“digital fiction”

6,980

9,420

71

“interactive fiction”

23,100

18,300

974

“Games design”

31,000

17,600

4,500

“indie games design”

9

10

7

unity3d

61,900

203,000

24,900

“blender 3d”

53,500

16,500

10,900

GIMP

1,090,000

415,000

83,300

c#

1,570,000

828,000

13,600

TOTAL:

315,576,782

85,601,263

96,362,616

Even if my conjecture about Google indexing their own blogs very thoroughly is true, WordPress scores higher in a handful of quite specialised areas: Unity3d, digital poetry, interactive poetry and interactive prose. In sampling Blogger, I also discovered that it is possible to comment on others’ blogs using a WordPress account – WordPress doesn’t appear to have the reverse option. This means that if I could easily interact with both communities, as well as enjoying the quality and UK popularity of WordPress.